Great entertainment and a bit of heart

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2013)

Just got back from an opening day screening of Pacific Rim and to begin with i have to say i was satisfied with what i saw. This movie is arguably the movie that i have been anticipating most for this year (maybe even more than Man of Steel of Iron Man 3), for the fact that this is totally some fresh idea in Hollywood for a long while. Now to the movie itself, in terms of action, it was totally satisfying and even more than that. It started right off with a Kaiju and Jaeger battle that more than delivered, and subsequently, more fights came on with increasing level of awesomeness, and well paced out so it does not make us ask ourselves when are all these fighting gonna end? (hint: Transformers 3). Guillermo del Toro certainly is good in coming up with fresh and dope ideas, like the plasma cannon and having the Typhoon with 3 arms and turning bodies. It was totally unexpected ways of fighting from the Jaeger that made me very happy, rather than just the punch and kick and shoot rockets like i imagined before going into the theater. Action wise, i rated this higher than the Transformers franchise (with part 1 arguably an exception), and Battleship or Godzilla. Special mention to the IMAX version, if you don't mind paying the extra, then go for the IMAX, it will be crazy :) In terms of heart, this movie certainly did delivered as well. The director said himself the movie is about humans, and it certainly was. With all the awesome fighting mentioned, i still felt that it was only an icing to the cake, rather a bonus to a well shown relationships between the Commander and Mako, as well as the father and son in Striker Eureka. It was the humans that made the Jaegers. At the end of the day, the film succeeded in making me believe that this is humanity fighting back, but not the robots. Now to the weaker part, i felt that some parts of the movie needed a bit more development, and also the movie will certainly do better with a better male lead. In the beginning of the 2nd act, they totally didn't brought me with why Becket has to return. I mean why didn't they come and find him in the 5 years in between? Next up, one line is all it takes to change his mind over such catastrophic incidents? Throughout the whole movie, i felt like Becket was just simply...there, he didn't shine, he didn't provide the sparks he could have. Idris Alba and Rinko did a better job for me, it was believable display from them. All in all, if you go in the theater wanting for some pure entertainment to relieve stress, and maybe a bit of smile on your face over the heart of the story, Pacific Rim is perfect for this weekend.